When the German Egyptologist Hans Winkler
started his journey through the south Eastern Desert of Egypt in
1936 he was searching for traces of early human society. This
adventurous travel was rewarded with the discovery of
hundreds spectacular rock drawings dating from prehistoric and
historic times.

During the dark times of the second world war
Winkler´s discoveries were lost and forgotten. It was not
rediscovered until the early 1990´s when a group of English
archaeologists retraced the travels of H. Winkler and studied the
carvings once again.

In
prehistoric times the landscape of the Eastern Desert resembled
more the savannas of today’s East Africa. Herds of
wild game like African Gazelles, Elephants, Ostriches and Giraffes
were grazing the Wadis. They provided a hunting for the human
population as well as for Lions and other predators. While Ibex
and Gazelle still cling on in today’s harsher environment,
the others disappeared from that region as long ago as the third
millennium BC. At this time drastic climatic changes turned the
area into a barren and forbidding landscape.

Some of the oldest rock carvings are scenes
with Giraffes, Elephants or Ostriches. Some drawings indicate a
strong connection between the desert and the Nile valley. There
are pictures of men hunting hippopotamus or crocodiles,
animals living at the river Nile. Others are drawings of boats
transporting godlike figures. They symbolize men’s
communication with the after world, a theme common in most tombs
of pharaonic and pre-pharaonic Egypt.

The
meaning of most drawings were of mystical reasons: hunting scenes
were drawn before the hunt, invoking success for the actual
hunting; warriors drawn with tails of lions were seeking the
strength of these animals. Many of the pictures are to be found in
caves or shelters, a common place in the world´s human
history to worship the spiritual world. They provided silence and
protection from the very often violent environment.

When the desert dried out and society began to
concentrate in the Nile valley, the area became host to semi-nomad
tribes and mine settlements. Different trading routes followed the
Wadis connecting the Red Sea with the Nile. They produced the more
recent rock carvings: Caravans with camels, fighting scenes on
camels or horses, men hunting with dogs, or pharaonic hieroglyphic
writing.

Ancient or more recent, the rock drawings of the
eastern desert present a spectacular document of history. They
give hints to pre-pharaonic Egypt, present some of the roots of
pharaonic times at the Nile valley and tell about the history of
later desert inhabitation.

Today these rock drawings are only known to the
Bedouin which inhabit the area.